Coloring Books for Grown-ups

Dear Reader,

Mid-month caught me rooting around for an August blog topic, and once again, my sister Jennie provided me with one. Weeks ago, she had told me about a recent trend – coloring books for grown-ups. A quick on-line search showed the possibilities available. Then Jennie alerted me to the Sunday newspaper’s Parade Magazine, with a cover illustration by Amy Reid ready for coloring.

Adult coloring books are an opportunity to gobble up a piece of joy, an invitation to let yourself go and make art! Gone is the “I can’t draw a straight line” response to the threat of creating art. Gone is the “I don’t know what to draw” thought when facing a blank page. Gone is self-conscious embarrassment - “Is this any good?” No two people will color the same pattern in the same way. In other words, “It’s all good.”

Hillari Dowdle wrote about what happens when she sits down with her coloring book and drops into the zone: “The world and its cares have dropped away. Work stress, money worries, health concerns and arguments…have all faded.” Her article provided details of the coloring book trend and included testimonials from people whose lives have improved because they regularly open up a book filled with patterns, symbols, landscapes, animals and begin to color. Who wouldn’t like to experience a “total transformation of mind and spirit?”

Like all art making, adult coloring books may also change the way you look at the world when you lift your hand and eyes from the page. In addition to time spent in the zone of your coloring book, you may begin to notice patterns and colors that had previously escaped you.

Take charge of your pleasure! Treat yourself! Get a coloring book! Gather pencils and markers – let yourself go! Ultimately, it’s a journey and a destination – meditative, pleasurable - that produced a satisfying visual you and the page’s designer created.